Taiwan’s foreign minister on Saturday (18 May) slammed China’s state newspaper for claiming ‘Taiwan, China’ legalized same-sex marriage.
‘WRONG!’ Joseph Wu said, sharing the People’s Daily tweet. He said the newspaper was a ‘commie brainwasher & it sucks’.
Taiwan became the first country to legalize same-sex marriage on Friday when its parliament voted to enact a new law.
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province that it will ‘reunite’ with the mainland, by force if necessary.
But, Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by Communist China.
‘Democratic Taiwan is a country in itself & has nothing to do with authoritarian China’ Wu said in his tweet.
His thoughts were echoed by a member of Taiwan parliament Wang Ting-yu. He urged the People’s Daily to ‘delete this ugly tweet’.
Taiwan became the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage on Friday (17 May).
The country’s parliament voted in favor of a government bill offering same-sex couples similar rights to opposite-sex couples.
It comes after years of court rulings, referendums, and tussles in parliament.
The crucial 4th line of the bill passed with 93 lawmakers voting for the bill, 66 opposing, and 27 abstaining.
Thousands of LGBTI rights supporters gathered outside parliament and cheered as the vote was announced.
It was the result of work by LGBTI groups over the last 30 years, said Benson Lee of Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan.
‘Legislators have come forward and stood on the side of love’ he told Gay Star News.
He said the movement will not stop here. ‘We will continue our work in eradicating discrimination and bullying and defending LGBTI education’.
In a last-minute effort to appease conservative lawmakers, Taiwan’s ruling party on Friday removed the word ‘marriage’ from the bill.
But, same-sex couples can still get register for marriage in the same way as other couples.
Couples can only adopt children if the child is the biological child of one of the couple.
Taiwan is the regional leader for LGBTI rights. Thailand’s ruling junta last year submitted a union bill to cabinet, affording limited rights to same-sex couples.
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